“I’m still working on that,” Jafar admitted.
Selima shook her head. “Oh Father, I’m so frightened. I’ve never been as scared as I am now, not even when those two policemen grabbed me outside the hammam. We’re in serious trouble, and your stories and your pretending only get us in deeper. Maybe we ought to throw ourselves on the wizard’s mercy and tell him the truth. Perhaps he’d forgive us….”
Putting a fatherly arm around her shoulders to comfort her, Jafar said, “As you yourself pointed out, Akar lost his soul years ago. All a confession would earn us is a quick trip down the mountainside. As an itinerant storyteller and his daughter, we matter not at all to him—but as a wizard and his apprentice, we’re people to be respected.”
“But the longer we fool him, the angrier he’ll be when he
